How to configure the OpenDNS Dynamic IP Updater Client?

Overview

OpenDNS Updater is useful if you have a dynamic IP address. It detects changes to your IP address and notifies OpenDNS service about the change so that your OpenDNS settings continue to be applied to your network.

Initial Setup

Please refer to the following KB article for download links of the OpenDNS Updater Client for Windows, Mac and Linux.

When you run the program for the first time, it will ask for your OpenDNS account username and password.

If you have more than one dynamic network in your OpenDNS account, the program will ask you to select the network whose settings to use for this computer. If you only have one network, it will be used automatically.

Status Window

The status window shows the following basic information:

OpenDNS account: The OpenDNS account being used

Network to update: The network label for the network being used

IP address: The current IP address of your computer

Using OpenDNS?: Whether or not you are currently using OpenDNS service

Last updated: When you last notified OpenDNS of your current IP address

You can also:

Change account: Use a different OpenDNS account

Change network: Change network

Update now:Force an update to notify OpenDNS service of your current IP address

Common Problems

You're not using OpenDNS

Your computer or network is not configured to use OpenDNS service. Learn how to configure a computer to use OpenDNS service.

For technically minded: the program determines if your computer is using OpenDNS service by trying to resolve myip.opendns.com address using your DNS server. Only OpenDNS's servers know how to resolve this particular address so if we don't get the right response, we assume that OpenDNS service is not being used.

Your IP address belongs to a different network

This happens most often when using someone else's network (e.g. public wireless hotspot, a friend's wireless network etc.). Each OpenDNS user is uniquely identified by an IP address. If you use someone else's connection which is already configured to use the OpenDNS service, we then detect that more than one OpenDNS account claims to use the same IP address.

If you're temporarily using someone else's network connection, you can ignore this error. If you believe this IP address really belongs to you, you can contact support.

HTTP vs. DNS IP address mismatch

This happens most often when you use an HTTP proxy. OpenDNS service recognizes your computer by IP address from which DNS requests are made and applies your filtering settings based on that information. When using HTTP proxy, the requests might come from a different computer, which will have a different IP address and OpenDNS service will not be able to apply your filtering settings.